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Monday, May 29, 2017

Story Fragment #10: The Neighborhood

Assignment: Describe a neighborhood. Who lives there? What are their secrets?

From the outside, Paula's neighborhood appeared normal and sedate. There was block after block of Cape Cod style homes, nearly identical except for the color combinations of siding and shutters. They had all been built in the early 1940's, and not much had changed since then as far as the look of things was concerned. The yards were all neatly manicured, and the trees and flowers well kept.

All of that was window dressing, however. In the five months since she had moved here, Paula had begun to see the cracks in the perfect facade. On her block alone, police and paramedics had been called to two different homes, each occasion resulting in at least one member of the household being led away in handcuffs--and in one case, a second person cuffed to the stretcher which was loaded into the ambulance.

Then there was the family next door to her--the loud rock music blaring was obviously an attempt to cover the arguing, but the houses were too close together for it to be successful. It came as no real surprise to Paula the morning she looked out her kitchen window to see the husband loading his belongings into the bed of his pickup truck and driving away.